


the great tree (or: maybe we should have just gone around)

by marshie_marshmallow



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25604014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshie_marshmallow/pseuds/marshie_marshmallow
Summary: Rapunzel, Kiera, and Catalina's next obstacle in their lives as traveling thieves is one really big, really creepy tree.
Relationships: Angry | Keira & Rapunzel & Red | Catalina, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	the great tree (or: maybe we should have just gone around)

**Author's Note:**

> This is what I lovingly call my Chaos AU (because there's always so much happening at once). There may come a time when I write the whole thing out as a complete story, in which case this part would definitely be greatly expanded on. But for now, I leave you with this.

“It’s creepy. We should go around.”

“Oh come on, Kiera,” Rapunzel replied, checking the map. “It’s just a tree. A really...  _ big  _ tree.”

The younger girl crossed her arms, frowning. “A big,  _ creepy _ tree. Call it a thief’s intuition but that place is  _ bad news _ .”

Pascal, sitting on Kiera’s shoulder, eyed it curiously, looking as though he was thinking.

“Going around would take too long,” Catalina said. “Going through it is faster.”

“She’s right,” Rapunzel agreed, turning the map around to the show the others. “We’d have to backtrack a couple of days worth of travel to try to find a safe way around.”

Kiera sighed, hanging her head. “Well, if it’s the  _ only _ way forward…”

“It’ll be fine!” Rapunzel encouraged as she rolled up the map and tucked it in her bag. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Uh… It’s infested with deadly snakes. It’s actually the hideout for a bunch of brutal thugs. It’s haunted.”

“Oh, please.” She waved a hand. “We’ve faced much, much worse. There’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just go.”

Kiera trotted off towards the tree. Catalina and Rapunzel glanced at each other and shrugged before following after her, being careful to avoid the black rocks along their way. Nobody wanted a repeat of the  _ last _ time one of them touched a black rock.

* * *

The inside of the tree felt unsettling somehow. It also had a much more complicated interior than anticipated. They weren’t even sure they were going the right way half the time but they managed to avoid any deadly experiences.

“We’ve gotta be getting close to the exit, right?” Rapunzel asked.

“I’m not sure… This is a pretty huge tree,” Kiera said. “And we’ve been going uphill this entire time without reaching a peak.”

“That’s true… I didn’t know it’d be such a labyrinth inside.”

“It’s weird that the tree’s been hollowed out at all.”

“Why do you think that is?” Rapunzel raised a hand to her chin, considering what could have led to the tree being like this. “And there’s all these drawings and those suits of armor… Do you think someone lived here?”

Kiera shrugged. “I just wanna get out of here.”

There was a chittering noise and a raccoon ran in front of them. It paused for a moment to glance at them before continuing along its way.

“Wait, don’t run away!” Catalina said, chasing after it.

Kiera rolled her eyes while Rapunzel just smiled before they both took off as well.

They followed the raccoon into a circular room filled with grass and a pond in the middle. There were more etchings on the walls and there were also shelves filled with scrolls. Sitting cross-legged by the shelves, with a pile of more scrolls, was a teenage boy with a blue stripe in his bangs. He was dressed almost entirely in black, with the only real color being the dark red bandana around his neck and the goggles perched on his head.

“Oh hey,” Kiera said. “It’s Goggles. Hi, Goggles.”

The boy looked up and waved. The raccoon scampered up his side and settled around his neck.

“Where’s Goatee?” Catalina asked.

“He’s around.” He reached into the bag by his side and produced an apple, which he handed to the raccoon. “He went to go check out some stuff in another part of the tree.”

“And what are you doing?” Rapunzel asked.

He held up a handful of scrolls. “Translating.”

“Can I see?” She asked, sitting down next to him.

“I don’t know about-” he started but she was already pulling one out of his pile. “Aren’t you  _ thieves _ ?”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t have an academic interest in…” She squinted at the paper. “What  _ are _ you studying, anyway?”

“Eugene says we’re not supposed to talk about it.”

The girls all glanced at each other, silently taking in the knowledge that Goatee’s real name was Eugene.

“Well,” Rapunzel said, “if you can’t tell us, I’ll just have to figure it out by reading these.”

She picked three random scrolls from his pile and moved to sit a good few feet away. Kiera and Catalina, realizing that they were going to be stuck for a while, flopped on the ground with Pascal.

The first two scrolls proved impossible for her to read, being in some kind of ancient language or code. The third, however, had a plain, modern language translation along the inside.

“‘Flower gleam and glow. Let your power shine…’” she muttered. “Oh! It’s the Healing Incantation!”

Kiera and Catalina both bolted upright, visibly panicking as they glanced between her and Goggles. Thankfully, he was too engrossed in a scroll to notice her hair glowing for a brief moment as she read.

“Why would this be here? Is this how Mother knew the song? But what’s this other one…?"

"Uh… Rapunzel? Maybe we oughta leave," Kiera suggested. "You know before  _ certain people _ find out about  _ certain things. _ "

Pascal nodded.

"Is he studying your… your hair?" Catalina whispered. "But he doesn't seem to  _ know _ you have magic hair, so… what's he studying, then?"

"I'm not sure it's my hair…" Rapunzel replied. "Yeah, there's the Healing Incantation but there are so many other scrolls too… and this other incantation."

"Other incantation?"

She stood up and moved to stand by the pond as she started reading. “‘Wither and decay. End this destiny. Break these earthly chains, and set the spirit free.’”

Goggles glanced up, clearly curious as to what she was doing, as she repeated the incantation.

Something gripped the edges of her mind as she kept reading. She could hear the vague sound of someone calling her name in a panic before the noise faded into the background.

_ Wither and decay _

_ End this destiny _

_ Break these earthly chains _

_ And set the spirit free _

_ The spirit free… _

The next thing she was truly aware of was something heavy slamming into her side, knocking her into the pond. She blinked and there was a tall, familiar-looking man with a goatee above her. The look on his face was one of both confusion and panic.

“... Hello,” she said.

“... Hi, Blondie,” he replied as he stood up and helped her to her feet.

As she stood up, she noticed everyone else all lying on the ground, looking much worse for the wear. Kiera and Catalina were holding hands, looking absolutely terrified, with Pascal on Catalina’s shoulder. The raccoon was sitting on Goggles' chest, patting his face.

“Wait, what happened?” she asked.

“You tell me. I came back to see how Varian was coming along with the scrolls and I found… whatever it was that was happening.”

“Rapunzel?” Catalina asked quietly.

“Oh, gosh, did I do this? I didn’t…” She rushed over to the girls and Pascal. “It’s like I didn’t- I don’t know… Like, once I started, I couldn’t stop? But, more importantly, are you okay?”

“We’re… fine,” Kiera said. “I think.”

“Moon above, kid, I leave you alone for  _ ten minutes _ …” Eugene was saying in the background as he checked over Goggles… er, Varian.

“Wasn’t my fault…” the boy protested as got to his feet. “And it was longer than ten minutes.” The raccoon curled up his arms as he turned to Rapunzel. “But that was  _ fascinating _ . If I’ve gotten these translations right, to use that incantation would require you to have the power of the Moonstone. It’s not possible for you to literally have the Moonstone, of course, and you certainly didn’t seem to be harnessing it on purpose… And the way your hair reacted!”

He had inched close enough that she could hold her hand out and lay her palm flat against his forehead as a signal to stop moving towards her. He glanced up at it and stepped back.

“I suppose you may have somehow acquired a fraction of the Moonstone’s power,” he concluded. “I can’t say how, though. I would need to know more about… well, you. You’re no ordinary thief, that’s for certain.”

“Are you only just now figuring that out?” Eugene asked. “Because I worked that out from the amount of  _ hair _ she has.”

* * *

They set up camp at the highest point of the tree. Rapunzel and her sisters had never camped with anyone else before but they’d met Eugene and Varian enough to consider them reasonably trustworthy. They were pretty sure, anyway. They had certainly saved each other enough times.

On the other hand, they  _ had _ only just now learned each other’s real names.

Catalina helped Rapunzel braid her hair back while Kiera reapplied her facepaint, which had been messed up by Eugene shoving her into the pond. Eugene, meanwhile, got a fire going after Varian snapped at him for fussing. Varian was sitting with a torn-up, incomplete scroll like the ones he had been studying in that chamber, muttering something about ‘if only we had the fourth piece.’

“So, Blondie…” Eugene started

“Rapunzel.”

“Gesundheit,” he said without skipping a beat. “Why don’t we start at the beginning?”

“Where would you consider the beginning?”

“Uh… How long have you been capable of using magic like that?”

She shrugged. “My whole life.”

“Are you sure we should tell them?” Catalina asked.

“Please!” Varian pleaded, gathering up his scroll fragments and walking over. “If you’re somehow connected to the Moonstone, this could be the chance we need to save our home!”

“Your  _ home _ ?” Rapunzel asked.

“The Dark Kingdom. It’s been overrun with…” he gestured to a nearby black rock. “ _ Those _ . It’s caused by the Moonstone but we need more information on both the Moonstone and its counterpart, the Sundrop, to be able to do anything!”

“And you think  _ Rapunzel _ can help you?” Kiera asked.

“If she can use the Decay Incantation, she must have  _ some _ connection to the Moonstone! Is… is there anything else you’re capable of?”

She chewed her lip. “... Tell me more about your home.”

Varian and Eugene glanced at each other.

“Like the kid said, our kingdom is being destroyed by the rocks,” Eugene said. “The Moonstone itself resides in our kingdom and we’ve protected it from outsiders for generations… but it’s a destructive force. It’s to the point now that m- that the king is considering ordering everyone to leave. Watching over the Moonstone himself while everyone else just has to find new lives elsewhere. Otherwise, the Moonstone won’t stop until it’s killed everyone in the kingdom.”

“That’s why we’re here.” Varian held up the pieces of the incomplete scroll. “If we can find out more about the Moonstone and Sundrop, we may be able to find out how to get rid of the rocks. How to save our kingdom. And if you have some kind of connection to them… We might not get another chance like this!”

His eyes were wide and pleading, with the raccoon making a matching expression.

“... Group huddle,” Rapunzel announced, turning around to face Kiera and Catalina.

“How do we know they’re telling the truth?” Kiera asked.

“How do we know they’re  _ not _ ?” Rapunzel countered.

Catalina reached into the bag, pulled out the map, and unrolled it. “Uh… we’re basically already on our way to the Dark Kingdom. It’s not like it’s going too far out of our way.”

“Yeah, but what do you think they’ll do if they find out about Rapunzel’s hair?” Kiera said.

“I think... “ Rapunzel glanced back over her shoulder. “I think we can trust them. I think they’re telling the truth.”

Kiera and Catalina looked at each other, then shrugged.

“Well, your hair. Your choice.”

Catalina nodded.

Rapunzel slowly turned around, setting her shoulders straight to look more serious. “Alright. If this is really for the sake of your kingdom… I’ll tell you  _ everything _ .”


End file.
